Microsoft removes 8 studio's, but...

[Zanten]

Normchacho said:

bowserthedog said:

Microsoft acts like big corporations act.  When they needed these studios they funded them and promoted them but when they no longer needed them they killed them.

Maybe, it's certainly possible that MS has decided that it's easier to pay other devs to make games for them than to make games for themselves.

I'm not sure it's actually a good idea, but I guess we'll all find out.

It might come down to implementation, and to be fair to Microsoft, their use of third party seems to at least be the smart kind so far. Basically, Microsoft seems to be taking two approaches; for brand new IPs, they have the studios bring what interests them to give it either the thumbs up or thumbs down. And even when they're assigning new studios some of their older IPs, they still seem to be making sure talent from the original successes are attached to the project. Sunset Overdrive was an idea and IP that Insomniac brought to Microsoft, not vice versa. The man running the studios working on the new Crackdown game, David Jones, also directed the first (maybe the second as well, not sure,) title. The same goes for Killer Instinct, as one of the directors, Ken Lobb, also worked on the original titles. Platinum initially created the concept for Scalebound back in 2006, before getting the chance to work on it with Microsoft, etc, etc.

As long as Microsoft can maintain this attitude- giving third-party studios enough free reign to bring their ideas to the table for new properties, and ensuring old properties have a bit of a guiding hand from those most familiar with said properties- I think they could pull it off. I think I'd only start to get seriously concerned if they just start throwing their IPs at studios with little idea on the intricacies and ideas behind the property; sure, the 'brand new, largely unrelated thing' they make could be as enjoyable, even more enjoyable, than the original property. ....ooooor it could suck a lot, miss the point altogether, and just come across as an unrelated game wearing the skin of a popular IP.